Trained as a teacher of physical education at the Sargent School in Boston, Ruth J. Totman enjoyed a career at state normal schools and teachers colleges in New York and Pennsylvania before joining the faculty at Massachusetts State College in 1943, building the program in women's physical education almost from scratch and culminating in 1958 with the opening of a new Women's Physical Education Building, which was one of the largest and finest of its kind in the nation. Totman retired at the mandatory age of 70 in 1964, and twenty years later, the women's PE building was rededicated in her honor. Totman died in November 1989, three days after her 95th birthday.

The Totman Papers are composed mostly of personal materials pertaining to her residence in Amherst, correspondence, and Totman family materials. The sparse material in this collection relating to Totman's professional career touches lightly on her retirement in 1964 and the dedication of the Ruth J. Totman Physical Education Building at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Supplementing the documents is a sizeable quantity of photographs and 8mm films, with the former spanning nearly her entire 95 years. The 8mm films, though fragile, provide an interesting, though soundless view into Totman's activities from the 1940s through the 1960s, including a cross-country trip with Gertrude "Jean" Lewis, women's Physical Education events at the New Jersey College for Women, and trips to Japan to visit her nephew, Conrad Totman.

Ruth Jane Totman was born on the farm of her parents Frederick L. and Jennie (Brower) Totman on November 20, 1894. She was the seventh of ten children, five of them girls, five boys. The farm always loomed large in Ruth's life, the place to which she returned whenever she could, summer after summer and often for Christmas or other vacation moments. She did so regardless of where her career took her, whether her first job teaching physical education in a public school district in central New York state, or later at Indiana State College in western Pennsylvania, New Jersey College for Women in New Brunswick, or Massachusetts State College (renamed UMass. in 1946) in Amherst.

From early on, it appears, Ruth, the youngest of the girls, the plain, rangy tomboy, had some difficulty getting along with her older sister, Harriet, born 1891. Harriet was the pretty one, the one who went on to a fine schooling at Mt. Holyoke College (class of 1914), while Ruth went to the less elegant Sargent School of Physical Education in Boston. The sisterly tensions lasted the rest of their lives, eased no doubt by Harriet's distance, since she pursued her career teaching the blind in Cleveland, Ohio, sharing her life with Ann Kessner, a school teacher, until senility brought her to the Amherst Nursing Home and final repose in Pine Grove Cemetery in Conway.

Ruth started school in the fall of 1898. She was only 3 years 9 months old at the time and, as she recalled it, was sent to school because her next older sister Mary had just turned five and was the only child scheduled to enter the first grade that year. Her teacher asked Jennie to send little Ruth, too, to keep Mary company, so the precocious child went, proving herself able to handle the work. After she graduated from high school in 1911 she was asked to teach at the Broomshire School, which was needing a teacher at the time. For two years she taught grades 1-6, earning money for her own schooling, and then went on to Sargent School in Boston.

The years of Ruth's youth were a time when pundits were expressing alarm that city life was undermining the good health of the young, and the alarm intensified during World War I as American military leaders began preparing their flaccid army for war in Europe. The concern led to mandatory physical education in many school systems across the country, and that development gave Ruth ample encouragement to become a teacher of physical education. In 1916, after three years at Sargent, she took a job teaching it at several public schools in the vicinity of Cortland, New York. In later years she spoke fondly of the three years she traveled from school to school in her horse and buggy, or sleigh in winter, staying at local houses on her circuit.

At the age of 25 she served for a year as instructor in physical education at the State Normal School in Cortland, NY, and she spent the following year in the employ of the New York State Department of education, supervising instruction in physical education in a larger rural region. In 1921 she moved to eastern Pennsylvania to teach at the State Teachers College in East Stroudsburg, working there for six years and completing her own undergraduate study in Physical Education at New Jersey College for Women (NJC) in 1927. Degree in hand, she moved to New Castle, in far western Pennsylvania, to supervise physical education in the public schools there. She then took a position teaching at Indiana State Teachers College in Indiana, Pennsylvania (some 30 miles northeast of Pittsburgh) from 1928 to 1936.

There, in the depths of the Great Depression, she met another young, newly appointed teacher, Gertrude Minnie (Jean) Lewis (1896-1996). They agreed to share an apartment and ended up lifelong friends. While teaching at Indiana State, Ruth also continued her own schooling, earning an MS degree from the University of Pittsburgh.

About 1936, Ruth took a job on the faculty of physical education at NJC, where she stayed until 1943. There she established a number of friendships that were to last for decades, including Mary Raven, who was a dietitian and head of the NJC cafeteria, Virginia Spencer and Ruth Stevenson, colleagues on the physical education staff, Winnie Schonlieber, evidently a physical education major there who later followed Ruth to teach in Amherst, and Helen Curtis.

By 1942 the United States was embroiled in World War II, and Ruth, still at NJC, took on new tasks. Perhaps her war effort that family and friends remember best was "Peaceful Acres" a project of the summer of 1942. It anticipated the "American Women's Land Army" program that the federal government launched in early 1943. Along a narrow country road was a fine old but vacant house and farm-turned-estate that had formerly been occupied by a Mrs. McAllister. Ruth arranged to rent the estate, dubbing it "Peaceful Acres," and invited a number of her NJC students and a colleague or two to join her there. They planted a large vegetable garden, raised a field of cucumbers for market, and assisted farmers in the vicinity in their summer work. With so many hired hands off to war, the farmers, including my father, were grateful for the help.

In 1943 she was invited to head the Department of Women's Physical Education at Massachusetts State College. She moved to Amherst, where she found living space at Mt. Pleasant Inn, just south of the campus and a brisk walk from her office in the Drill Hall. A year later she found a home on Strong Street, a recently built Cape Cod-style house and one-acre lot just beyond Wildwood Cemetery over the hill east of Butterfield dormitory. She took out a $2,000 mortgage at the Conway Savings Bank in July 1944, purchased the house for $5,500, and in September 1945, three weeks after the end of World War II, paid off the mortgage when Jean Lewis joined her as legal co-owner.

During the summer of 1945 Ruth was joined in the Strong Street house by her friend from NJC, Helen Curtis. Helen, having received a Master's degree from Columbia in 1942, took a post as Director of Students at the Douglass Campus. Three years later she was invited to join Mass. State as Dean of Women. As Helen enjoys recalling, she came for a job interview in Amherst with little enthusiasm because a school in Pennsylvania had just offered her what seemed a more attractive position. But when Ruth heard that she was coming for an interview, she promptly cancelled Helen's hotel reservation at the Lord Jeffrey Inn and invited her to stay at her house while visiting the campus. She also assured Helen that if she took the post, she would be welcome to share Ruth's house. Perhaps those gestures of welcome made the difference because Helen did accept, and she lived at Strong Street with Ruth until the end of her career nearly three decades later.

Ruth was delighted to be back in Massachusetts. Her work at Mass. State was exciting because with so many young men off to war, the role of women on campus was much larger, and she had a growing program to nurture. Moreover, and more personally, being in Amherst brought her closer to Jean Lewis, who worked at one place or another in New England from 1938 to 1949.

Meanwhile Ruth was contributing to UMass's accelerating growth and participating actively in the broader profession of Physical Education. Mass. State was renamed University of Massachusetts in 1946, and as the years passed Ruth continued expanding her program to stay abreast of swelling enrollments. Her teacher hiring proceeded successfully, adding a number of faculty members who became stalwarts of the program, including Vickory Hubbard, Maida Riggs, and Marilyn Herscholtz. She also promoted, Maida has informed me, student involvement in physical education by making her Strong Street house the regular meeting place for the Women's Athletic Association. And in 1958 or thereabouts she oversaw the establishment of her program's Teacher Education major.

As the decade advanced, Ruth's career approached its pinnacle. In 1956, the Drill Hall, which housed her program, was destroyed by an electrical fire. Ruth scrambled for temporary housing for staff and courses and then devoted much of two years to designing a grand new building for the program. As soon as these temporary arrangements were made, Ruth plunged into the task of designing permanent quarters for her program, and in 1958 "WoPE," the new Women's Physical Education Building opened, one of the largest and finest women's PE buildings in the nation. It provided the facilities necessary for that program to continue expanding as the university grew by leaps and bounds.

Ruth retired in 1964, having reached the mandatory retirement age of 70. Soon diverse people were advocating that the new building be named in her honor, and in 1972, just before retiring, Warren McGuirk, Dean of Physical Education, championed the proposal, formally setting the project into motion. Thanks in no small part to the early and continuing efforts of Helen Curtis, technical obstacles and administrative inertia were overcome, and in 1984 it finally came to pass.

Two years after Ruth, Jean, too, retired. In 1968 Jean did move in permanently, and, along with Helen, the three women shared the Strong Street house for several years after that. Then following her retirement in about 1973 Helen accepted a long-standing proposal of marriage from Christopher Cole. The two wed and moved into an apartment in a newly built residential enclave just northeast of the church at the center of North Amherst.

So Ruth and Jean finally were reunited and had a house to themselves, completing the circle begun in Indiana, PA forty five years earlier. In retirement they traveled widely, touring South America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Europe. In her last year or two Ruth declined, finally becoming bedridden. But with the loving care of Jean and much help from Helen her final days were reasonably comfortable, and three days after her 95th birthday she breathed her last at home, beloved friends at her side. She is buried in Conway, in Pine Grove Cemetery, along with her parents, sister Harriet, and Ruth's lifelong friend, Gertrude (Jean) Lewis.

Contents of Collection

The Ruth J. Totman Papers are composed mostly of personal materials with a smattering of professional or administrative documents. Documents pertaining to her residence in Amherst, correspondence, and Totman family materials, all highlight diverse aspects of her personal life. The sparse material in this collection relating to Totman's professional career touches lightly on her retirement in 1964 and the dedication of the Ruth J. Totman Physical Education Building at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Supplementing the documents is a sizeable quantity of photographs and 8mm films, with the former spanning nearly her entire 95 years. The 8mm films, though fragile, provide an interesting, though soundless view into Totman's activities from the 1940s through the 1960s, including a cross-country trip with Gertrude "Jean" Lewis, women's Physical Education events at the New Jersey College for Women, and trips to Japan to visit her nephew, Conrad Totman.

This collection was donated and organized by Conrad Totman, Ruth Totman's nephew. Using personal memories and documentary evidence, Conrad gave context to most, if not all, of the materials in these papers. In some instances, he included hand-written notes explaining what would otherwise be unknown information within certain materials. These notes are included in the finding aid with their relevant documents.

The separation of series in the Ruth J. Totman Papers is based upon format. Series 1 contains everything except motion picture, audio tape, and photographic print media. The papers in this series are organized by subject and then by alphabetical order. A few comments on the broader subjects within this series: "164 Strong Street" is Ruth Jane Totman's street address in Amherst. She lived in that house from 1944 until her death in 1989. "Child sponsorship:" Both Totman and Gertrude "Jean" Lewis supported organizations such as the Pearl Buck Foundation, and sponsored several children, mostly from eastern Asia, throughout the years. "Correspondence" is organized by the creator of the letter. Images of most letter authors can also be found in the photographs section of Series 2. "Totman Family" is pretty self-explanatory, but note also Series 4 in the Conrad Totman Papers, MS 447. "Totman Physical Education Building" is a fixture on the University of Massachusetts campus, and was the culmination of Ruth Totman's work as head of Women's Physical Education there. "Writings:" Ruth Totman co-wrote, along with Gertrude "Jean" Lewis, a book on children's education entitled, Teach Us What We Want to Know (see the Gertrude M. Lewis Papers, MS 450, for more). It appears Totman took a stab at writing for the children themselves rather than for their educators, as well as about her recollections of the rise and quick demise of public transportation in Conway, Massachusetts. Neither of these was published.

The separation of series in the Ruth J. Totman Papers is based upon format. Series 2 contains audiovisual materials, namely, Audio cassettes, 8mm films, and photographic prints. The cassettes and the films are fairly self-explanatory in the contents list. However, a word on the organization of the photographs: As this collection was donated by Ruth Totman's nephew, Conrad Totman, most, if not all, of the materials here have been organized and identified by him. All but two groups of photographs have been identified at the item level and are listed under their respective folder location. While the maintenance of original order within the photographs speaks more about Conrad Totman than it does about Ruth Totman, the photographs essentially remain in the order in which they entered into Special Collections. Conrad Totman notes that the photographs were kept by Ruth Totman, Gertrude "Jean" Lewis, and Helen Curtis in a jumbled, collective manner, which makes it difficult to determine to whom each photograph actually "belonged." Absolute determinations have been separated into their respective collections (Lewis at MS450 and Curtis at MS459) while the rest remain here. The item-level identifications, as well as contextual notes, are in Conrad Totman's words, with the exception of a few tweaks for consistency. The first nine folders of photographs are in chronological groups, the remainder grouped by loose subject. "Ruth Totman's Photo Album" actually came into Special Collections as an album, but was re-housed for preservation purposes. "Miscellany" is Conrad Totman's group of unsorted photographs. "Ruth Totman's Garden:" These are all mostly unidentified (some have explanations on the reverse of prints) and unsorted photographs of Ruth Totman's pride and joy, the garden in the rear of 164 Strong St. "Unidentified" is just that. Conrad Totman was unable to determine their identity, but these photos remain in the collection. NB: The listing at the item level reflects only the photographs' order of housing.

Totman Dairy Farm: Making Milk: A Portrait of the Totman Dairy Farm, National Public Radio [audio cassette]

1981

Box 6:

Photographs:

1897-1909

Box 7: 1

Ruth Jane Totman (seated) and Mary Totman (later Drew)

ca.1897

Box 7: 1

Ruth Jane Totman

ca.1909

Box 7: 1

Photographs:

ca.1910-1920

Box 7: 2

Unidentified baby

ca.1910

Box 7: 2

Jennie Brower Totman, mother of Ruth Jane Totman

ca.1915

Box 7: 2

Ruth Jane Totman

ca.1911

Box 7: 2

Harriet Totman dressed for her graduation from Mount Holyoke College

ca.1916

Box 7: 2

Ruth Jane Totman (on right) with her cousin Catherine Noyes in the front yard of the Totman farm in Conway

ca.1915

Box 7: 2

Ruth Jane Totman

ca.1917

Box 7: 2

Postcard Photograph of Chester Totman, Jr., (b.1916)

ca.1920.

Box 7: 2

His father, Chester Sr., died in 1920, and Ruth Totman became a guardian of sorts by ca. 1925. Chester, later married and living in Arizona, stayed in touch with Ruth. In the 1940s, or thereabouts, he made a lovely set of dining room furniture and matching book cases. Made of walnut, I believe (CDT, 2003)

Postcard photograph of landscape near Franklin, NY. It was through this scenery that Ruth Totman rode to teach in 1916-1918

ca.1918

Box 7: 2

Postcard photograph of landscape near Franklin, NY. It was through this scenery that Ruth Totman rode to teach in 1916-1918

ca.1918

Box 7: 2

Postcard Photograph of the Cortland (NY) Normal School burning

ca.1920

Box 7: 2

Group of people in Albany, NY. "Group doing rural PE in NY"

ca.1918

Box 7: 2

Ruth Jane Totman (right) and friend, Mary Raven

ca.1918

Box 7: 2

Mary Raven walking on railroad track

ca 1919

Box 7: 2

Harriet Totman (left) and Mary Raven

ca.1919

Box 7: 2

Mary Raven (top of stairs?)

ca.1919

Box 7: 2

unidentified

ca.1919

Box 7: 2

Ruth Jane Totman (second from right) and unknown friends

ca.1918

Box 7: 2

Ruth Jane Totman (second from left) and unidentified friends in the South River in Conway

ca.1920

Box 7: 2

Photographs

ca.1925-1930

Box 7: 3

Ruth Totman was extremely sorry to leave Stroudsberg. Perhaps because of the good friends she made there. Some such as Gretchen Herzog and Caryl Coburn kept in touch years later as did Helen Riegel (CDT Feb 2003)

Gertrude M. Lewis taught high school in Johnstown, Pennsylvania in ca. 1926-1928. She also had a position at Indiana (PA) State College, probably near where she and Ruth Totman rented an apartment together. (CDT, Feb 2003)

Photographs:

1931-1939

Box 7: 4

Ruth Jane Totman

ca.1931

Box 7: 4

Ruth Jane Totman

ca.1931

Box 7: 4

Mary Raven

ca.1937

Box 7: 4

Mary Raven

ca.1937

Box 7: 4

Mary Raven with child

ca.1938

Box 7: 4

Ruth Jane Totman (right), and unidentified woman

ca.1939

Box 7: 4

Gertrude Minnie Lewis (seated) and Ruth Jane Totman

1933 Oct 15

Box 7: 4

Ruth Jane Totman (left) and Gertrude Minnie Lewis, sipping syrup at the sugar house on the Totman family farm in Conway

ca.1934

Box 7: 4

Harriet Totman on the Totman family farm in Conway

ca.1931

Box 7: 4

Ruth Jane Totman in Winter

ca.1934

Box 7: 4

Snowy landscape

ca.1934

Box 7: 4

Helen Davis, high school Junior year portrait

1931 May

Box 7: 4

As the school picture indicates, Helen Davis was in high school in 1931 in Indiana, PA. Perhaps she went to college at nearby Indiana (PA) State College, where Ruth Totman and Gertrude "Jean" Lewis were teaching from 1931-1936. Perhaps Ruth and/or Jean were her teachers. Perhaps she met Ann McClure there. Ann and Helen became a pair and pursued careers, ending up in Florida perhaps by the late 1930s (CDT, Feb 2003)

Helen Davis, in riding gear

1937 Aug

Box 7: 4

Helen Davis' dogs, Cyr and Tommie

1937 Aug

Box 7: 4

Helen Davis

ca.1936

Box 7: 4

Helen Davis (far left) with unidentified friends on a beach

ca.1939

Box 7: 4

Ruth Jane Totman, portrait

ca.1936

Box 7: 4

Ann McClure

1938

Box 7: 4

Where Ruth Jane Totman met Ann McClure is unclear. Ann and Helen Davis were also friends of Gertrude Minnie Lewis and Harriet Totman. Perhaps they were at New Castle together. Ann and Helen later taught in the Buffalo, NY area, I think (or originated in that region), but they were in Florida as teachers most of their lives, as these snapshots indicate (CDT, Feb 2003)

Helen Curtis, long time UMass Dean of Women, lived at the house of Ruth Jane Totman from about 1945 until she married Chris Cole, ca. 1975. She kept close ties to her family, including her niece Rhoda and her family, and her brother Wally and his family near Los Angeles, CA.

She was an enthusiastic picture-taker.

She was at New Jersey College for Women when Ruth Jane Totman was. When Ruth heard that she was interviewing for the UMass job, Ruth invited her to stay at her house while on campus. Helen accepted the offer, later accepted the job, and ended up living with Ruth (CDT, Feb 2003).

Rita Curtis, sister-in-law of Helen Curtis, near pool in Los Angeles

ca.1945

Box 7: 5

Rita Curtis, sister-in-law of Helen Curtis, near pool in Los Angeles

ca.1945

Box 7: 5

Virginia Spencer (left), and Ruth Jane Totman

ca.1942

Box 7: 5

Virginia Spencer and Ruth Jane Totman were together in the phys. ed. program as teachers at New Jersey College for Women (NJC). They also may have shared an apartment. And enjoyed gardening.

In the summer of 1942, as a gesture in the war effort, to ease the farm labor shortage and give some of her students a physically demanding summer educational experience, Ruth Jane Totman rented "the McAllister place" on Reeds Bridge Rd., in Conway, MA (Klassen place in 1967). Her students and she raised a garden and helped local farmers get in hay and grow tobacco and other crops. Ruth called the farm she rented "Peaceful Acres" (CDT, Feb 2003)

Peaceful Acres

ca.1942

Box 7: 5

Peaceful Acres

ca.1942

Box 7: 5

Ruth Jane Totman and child at Peaceful Acres

ca.1942

Box 7: 5

Peaceful Acres

ca.1942

Box 7: 5

22 -- Ruth Koonz

ca.1944

Box 7: 5

Ruth Koonz was one of Ruth Jane Totman's students. She participated in the Peaceful Acres project. She also kept in touch with Ruth through the years. Another student (Cynthia "sis" McIntyre) starred in a Greenfield Recorder Gazette story on the project (CDT, Feb 2003)

Ruth Koonz

ca.1946

Box 7: 5

Photo booklet of an archery tournament near Washington DC. Ruth Jane Totman can be seen in the sixth and seventh photographs

ca.1942

Box 7: 5

Ruth Jane Totman was a keen archer -- taught it to the Totman children in Conway (CDT, Feb 2003)

Christmas photo/card from Moma Patrique

ca.1943

Box 7: 5

Moma Patrique was a friend, but I don't know the connection. Perhaps in the Home Ec. department at NJC (CDT, Feb 2003)

Letters from Japan in Conrad D. Totman's MS 447 are restricted until 2015.

Sister of Gertrude Lewis?

ca.1953

Box 7: 6

Ruth Jane Totman on front steps of 164 Strong St.

1952

Box 7: 6

Ruth Jane Totman at Strong St

ca.1950

Box 7: 6

Helen Curtis at Strong St

ca.1950

Box 7: 6

Helen Curtis at Strong St.

ca.1950

Box 7: 6

Portrait, Helen Curtis

ca.1950

Box 7: 6

Ruth Jane Totman at Conway Farm

ca.1950

Box 7: 6

Ruth Jane Totman at Strong St

ca.1950

Box 7: 6

Ruth Jane Totman at Strong St.

ca.1953

Box 7: 6

Ruth Jane Totman in her garden

1954

Box 7: 6

Ruth Jane Totman in her garden

1954

Box 7: 6

Christmas/photo card from Ruth Koonz' family

ca.1959

Box 7: 6

Ruth Jane Totman at Strong St

ca.1950

Box 7: 6

Ruth Jane Totman at Strong St

ca.1950

Box 7: 6

Ruth Jane Totman at Strong St

ca.1950

Box 7: 6

Christmas photo from Cherry

1954

Box 7: 6

Student of Ruth, Peaceful Acres girl? (CDT, Feb 2003)

Helen Curtis at Strong St

ca.1950

Box 7: 6

Korean vista during Korean War

1951

Box 7: 6

In 1951-1952 Ruth Totman's nephew, Clayton Totman, a Lieutenant Colonel in the 1st Marine Division, I believe, urged Ruth to organize a clothes drive for destitute Koreans in his area of command.

Ruth and others did so, and one day Harry Demers (worked for Ray Totman on the Conway farm -- see CDT Letters from Korea {MS 447}) and I drove a big truckload of clothes from Conway and Amherst to the Marine Air Station in Squantum, near Cape Cod. From there it went to Korea.

CDT was a freshman at UMass at the time.

This Snapshot, perhaps taken by Clayton, shows the lower Han River area northwest of Seoul, where the DMZ was established at its western end in 1953. It appears to be northwest of the region shown in the CDT snapshots {MS 447, Series V}. (CDT, Feb. 2003)

This assemblage of snapshots was probably put together by Helen Curtis Cole, perhaps in Ruth's final years or later, and perhaps on behalf of Jean Lewis. They are listed here as they appeared in the album (CDT, Feb. 2003)

Ruth Jane Totman dressed for an affair, in front of her sunroom

1964

Box 7: 10

Ruth Jane Totman beside a Poinsettia in her living room

1961

Box 7: 10

T.O. Wilkinson and Ruth Jane Totman in the slat house in the rear of 164 Strong St.

1968

Box 7: 10

T.O. and family were neighbors and dear friends of Ruth et al., and he a Professor of Sociology at UMass (CDT, Feb. 2003)

A group traveling, it appears. Ruth Jane Totman in center in brown raincoat, Helen Curtis in white raincoat, third from right beyond white-haired man

ca.1977

Box 7: 11

The barn which stands next to the Burpee House

1952

Box 7: 11

This and the following seven photographs are of Fordbrook Farm, where W. Atlee Burpee began his program of plant breeding and selection that eventuated in the Burpee seed catalogue business. Probably Ruth visited it during one of her trips. (CDT, Feb. 2003)